Norwegian shipowner Hunter Group has bagged another VLCC term charter at an attractive rate as spot levels continued to recover.
The Oslo-listed company, backed by investor Arne Fredly, said the 300,000-dwt Hunter Disen (built 2020) has been booked by an unnamed charterer at $38,000 per day for between five and seven months.
The deal is another indication that interest in VLCC term deals is increasing, not least due to a growing trend among traders to secure ships for potential crude storage deals.
The Hunter Disen will begin its new charter in early November, after the end of its current contract.
But term rates cannot match up to levels earlier this year, when spot rates were booming. Brokers reported in April that the Hunter Disen was fixed out of the yard for 18 months at about $60,000 per day to Trafigura, but this was not confirmed.
Last newbuilding fixed
And last month, Hunter fixed its final DSME newbuilding, the Hunter Frigg, at a firm rate in a weaker tanker market at that time.
The ship was booked for between six and eight months at $40,000 per day.
Hunter now has 70% of its fleet days booked for the second half of this year at an average of $63,000 per day.
In March, the tanker owner said it had fixed three sisterships — the Hunter Alta, Hunter Saga (both built 2019) and Hunter Freya (built 2020) — for six months at $80,000 per day. The trio were linked to business with trading houses.
Trafigura has reportedly fixed at least eight VLCCs on short charters in the last two weeks, and some of the vessels are speculated to be used to store oil.
Among them, New Shipping’s 281,050-dwt New Kassos (built 2000) was said to be chartered for six months at $25,000 per day.
TradeWinds also reported last week that the lone VLCC in SBM Offshore’s fleet was chartered for floating storage use amid growing appetite among oil firms for contango plays.
Brokers reported that the 300,985-dwt Gene (built 2003) was fixed to BP at $20,500 per day on a three-month charter. The deal has options to extend by another three months at $22,000 per day.
On Monday, Clarksons Platou Securities said VLCC rates jumped to $27,500 per day last week, after dipping to $10,000.
VLCCs hit post-July high
"A good amount of volume out of West Africa and a head start on October fixtures out of the Arabian Gulf pushed rates to their highest levels since July," the Norwegian investment bank said.
Brokers are expecting continued good momentum for VLCC rates as the October loading programme gets going.
Clarksons Platou counted 20% of the VLCC fleet inactive on Monday morning.
About 90 ships are in floating storage, little changed since May.
Another 1.5% of the fleet is undergoing scrubber retrofits, and 7.6% is idle because of port congestion.
Hunter also said on Monday it had declared its option to buy back sistership Hunter Laga (built 2019) from John Fredriksen's SFL Corp.
The ship will now be financed by the $158m loan facility taken out in June.
In August, Hunter took back the ownership of the other two VLCCs it had sold to SFL last September.
Hunter paid a combined purchase price of $118m after declaring its buy-back option on those ships.
